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Worrals of the W.A.A.F./plot
Chapter 1: Worrals Takes a Trip Worrals and Frecks have been posted to a fighter station commanded by Squadron Leader McNavish. Bored with simply ferrying old Tiger Moths back to the depot for reconditioning, she persuades her friend Bill Ashton to take her up and teach her to fly a Reliant two-seat fighter. McNavish finds out about this and reprimands her and Bill and then cancels their leave. Bill is sent off to the station's an advance landing ground. Minutes later, McNavish is forced to change his tune. He needs a Reliant ferried to the advance landing ground and does not have a reserve pilot. Worrals agrees to go and persuades him to let her take Frecks along. While airborne, they spot a strange twin-engine grey aircraft with no markings which they can't identify. Then they hear a radio message telling all R.A.F. aircraft to shoot down, at all costs, a plane of that description. Worrals concludes that they are the only ones in a position to do so and gives chase. She finds the grey aircraft low over a golf course. Something seems to fall from it. The pilot sees her and zooms up. Steeling herself for the moment, Worrals lines up the target and squeezes the firing button. The adversary trails smoke but disappears into the fog. Chapter 2: Grey Horses Arriving at the advanced landing ground, Bill Ashton tells Worrals she had indeed shot the aircraft down. Worrals then confides in Bill and asks his advice as she has seen something suspicious. On the south side of their station, there had often been a grey horse turned out to grass in a field. She had often used it as a way of finding the base in bad weather. Now when chasing the strange grey aircraft over the golf course, she had notice a second grey horse in a field nearby. After crossing the coast, the two grey horses, which were highly visible, made a line to their base. Were enemy pilots using them as a means of locating her base? Bill advises her to leave these points out of her report but tell MacNavish about it and see what he thinks. Back at her station, McNavish congratulates her on her skill and initiative, but rather coldly, warns her against doing such things. He does, however, tell her what the grey aircraft was about: a secret British prototype which had been stolen by an enemy agent. Chapter 3: Mystery at the Golf Course McNavish had told Worrals to forget about the grey horses but he does restore her leave so she decides to investigate her suspicions. At the farmhouse near the first grey horse a mile south of her station, the farmer, Tyson, tells her that a man named Corton had rented the pasture from him for grazing and paid for it in cash. He did not, however, leave an address. But he does describe Corton for Worrals: a tall, thin man with a big hook nose and walked with a stoop. Worrals and Frecks drive to the golf course where she had seen the second grey horse. It was a private course belonging to a nearby manor house and had a strange design: six bunkers in a line, all near the tee box and the fairway cut through a wood when it could have curved around it. They spot a man doing something in one of the bunkers and when they examine it later, find that he has replaced a blown red light bulb. The other bunkers also have lights. Worrals has an idea what the buld is for and they return to the golf course after dark. From cover they see some men hang a package on a rope stretched betweeh two trees. A plan arrives and the lights in the bunkers start signalling to it. Worrals realises that the plane is trying to pick up the package just like Army Coorperation aircraft do with hooks mounted below their fuselage. Worrals emerges from hiding and rushes for the package, seizing it before the plane can hook it. Chapter 4: In the Hands of Spies Two men emerge from the trees and capture Worrals but she manages to toss the package to Frecks over their heads. One of the men chases Frecks but loses her among the trees. Worrals is blindfolded and brought to the manor house where she is questioned by a man who fits the description of Corton. Worrals refuses to divulge anything and Corton orders his men to lock her up. Frecks makes her way to the nearest village hoping to find help but learns that the nearest policeman was far away and there was no telephone except at the rectory, which was the manor which owned the golf course. She goes back to their car but finds one wheel punctured. Out of options, she decides to try to rescue Worrals herself. Chapter 5: Frecks to the Rescue Frecks enters the rectory grounds and hides in the garage where she sees Corton driving off. But the garage doors are then shut and Frecks is locked in. She is able to climb onto a car and from there, through a skylight onto the roof but there is a lot of noise when the skylight glass is shattered. The men from the house come out to the garage to seek the cause of the noise. They think it might be Worrals and helpfully point their torch at the window of the room where she is locked up. Not finding anything, the men convince themselves that the noise came from an apple smashing through the greenhouse glass and go back into the house. From her position on the roof, Frecks attracts Worrals attention. Worrals tells her to go back into the garage to look for a file or hacksaw. Frecks fetches them and Worrals hauls them up with a string of torn bedsheets . She files through the iron bars on her window and climbs down using an electric flex which Frecks had supplied. They go to the garage hoping to steal the car but are forced to hide in the back when the men in the house arrive, get in the car themselves, and drive off. Chapter 6: The Plot Explained Undetected in the back of the car, the girls hear the men discussing a bomber raid which had been planned for the Churley munitions dump at dawn the next morning. They have to mark the location with a skewbald horse. After a time, the car stops at a farmhouse and the men go inside. Worrals decides they must warn the authorities about the raid but there isn't much time. The only option available is to use the telephone in the farmhouse! The girls enter the farmhouse cautiously and find the phone in an unoccupied room. Inside, Worrals also finds a pistol and a target map with all the important airfields in the area with a legend indicating which animal is used to mark each of them. Worrals quickly puts this into an envelope and addresses it to Bill Ashton. She calls her base at Bradchurch and relays the information about the raid to the operator and then asks to be put through to Bill Ashton at the advance post. Worrals just has time to tell Bill everything and mentions she would post the enemy target map to Bill. She is about to tell Bill where she is when the men in the house enter the room. Chapter VII: The Vicarage Again Worrals drops the phone abruptly and snatches up the pistol and alls to the men to stand back. She asks Frecks to go out through the window and start the car. Still keeping the men covered, she follows Frecks and the two then make a quick escape. The men from the farmhouse pursue them in a horsebox but of course the girls manage to stay comfortably ahead. Passing a village, the stop at a post office and Worrals drops the target map addressed to Bill into the postbox. After a while, the girls spot what looks like a home guard checkpoint and stop to get help. But the "soldiers" there turn out to be Corton's men! The girls are recaptured and taken back to the farmhouse. Corton is there. He has them searched but is unable to find the map and has them taken back to the rectory. At the rectory, Corton's subordinate, Carl, remembers that the car stopped at Rimpton village outside the post office and surmises that the girls must have posted the map. Corton sends Carl to fetch it. The girls are then locked up in a cellar. Chapter VIII: Hard Labour The next day, the girls are brought up to meet Corton again. He has with him two German aircrew, survivors of the failed raid on Churley. After a while, Carl also turns up and he is extremely worried. He has failed to retrieve the map. Moreover, the farmhouse and stables where Worrals had found the map had been raided by the police and some of the gang captured. Just then a Spitfire flies low over the house. Corton dismisses Carl's nervousness but decides that they should pull out and escape to Germany. They would take the girls with them. Corton orders his men to remove the lights and electrical equipment from the golf course. In the meantime, the girls are sent back to the cellar. Back in their lockup, Worrals gets to work. While their captors had been distracted looking out of the window at the Spitfire, she had stolen a box of matches and a nail file from a table. The girls take turns to file through the door lock. After three hours of hard work, the lock is filed through but the door leading up to the ground floor is also locked. They explore the other cellars and find a fairly new wine cupboard with freshly struck matches on the floor. Someone has been using this cellar recently! Worrals pulls on the cupboard and it swings aside revealing a door! It opens easily, disclosing an underground tunnel. Through it they must go. Chapter IX: Up the Tower The tunnels leads outside the rectory grounds and emerges in the vestry of a church. The door is locked but there is a smaller door leading up the tower. In the tower, the girls discover a set of hidden coloured signal lights. A German plane flies overhead and the lights begin to flash. Worrals covers the lights with her jacket. A British night fighter passes overhead and Worrals lights a fire with some twigs to try to signal to it. But the fire runs out of control and although they hastily smother it, it attracts the attention of Corton's men who are approaching the church. Worrals and Frecks hide in the belfry and evade Corton and some men who climb hastily up the ladder to the church tower. Unfortunately, coming down to the vestry, they run into Carl, who is waiting for them with a gun. Chapter X: Time is Short Carl is leaning on the two back legs of a chair. Worrals pretends to want to sit and bends down and pulls on the rug, tipping him backwards. The girls rush towards the tunnel and lock the door behind them. They hurry back to the rectory. Entering the hall, they hear voices and hastily hide inside a massive oak chest. It's an excellent hiding place. The girl overhead Corton discussing his plans with Carl. He has decided to evacuate, he tells Carl, because the girls might compromise the entire operation if they get away. His chief work, the mining of certain bridges, has, in any case, been finished. There is a map showing all the targeted bridges in his pocket. He has also planted a bomb in the rectory which would blow up as they leave. This would get rid of the real Reverend Corton who is a prisoner in the house, as well as lead everyone to think the house had been destroyed by a German air raid. In the shruberry in the garden, Corton had hidden in an underground hangar their escape aircraft, an American "Rockheed" which had sliding panels to display either British or German markings. After Corton and Carl leave, the girls emerge from the oak chest. They free the Reverend Corton and ask him to make his way to the village to alert the police. Meanwhile, they must foil escape of the spies. Chapter IX: A Desperate Flight It is almost morning when Worrals and Frecks sneak through the rectory garden. They find the "Rockheed". The engines are ticking over and Corton and Carl are just getting on board. Worrals decides on a desparate plan. She will get on board and make a rush for the cockpit and take the plane off. Frecks must do her best to prevent Corton and the other passengers from interfering. This plan succeeds and Worrals is able to seize the controls, open the throttle and take the machine off. Carl and a German pilot attempt to drag Worrals away but they are deterred by Worrals deliberately flying very low and warning them that if they grabbed her, she might crash the aircraft. Chapter XII: A Sound Excuse Carl pulls a gun and tries to shoot Worrals but she throws him off by kicking on the rudder bar and swerving the aircraft violently. Just then, the cabin is raked by machine gun fire. Worrals looks out and sees Bill Ashton's Spitfire and three more about to join him. The shots had a fortunate effect. The Germans all appear to be wounded. Frecks, who was pinned down by Corton and the others, is unharmed. Worrals puts the aircraft down on the golf course. Bill Ashton and Squadron Leader McNavish land to join the girls. Worrals tells McNavish about Corton's map of sabotaged bridges and he fetches it from the cabin. He sends Bill back to base to call for road transport and ambulances. Back at base, Worrals and Frecks are commended for their effort. They are offered a choice of postings but choose to stay where they are. Category:Plot summaries